Grey Eyes (A Harry Potter Fanfiction)

10. A Little Too Close

Remus and I joke around during the entire walk back to the Portrait Hole, but the moment I step into the Common Room, my eyes catch sight of someone sitting on the couch facing the fireplace. Someone with black hair.

I freeze in the middle of laughing at a comment Remus made about one of Peeves' recent pranks and stare fixatedly at Sirius' back. Don't know why I'm thinking this right now, but... I wonder what he said to Ellie.

Some part of me vaguely registers Remus patting me lightly on the back. "Uhh, hey, I'm going to crash, okay?" He pauses. "Er, g'night then?"

I hear him go up to the Boys' Dormitories and then jump suddenly at the sound of the door closing. Oh shoot, I didn't say good night back to him! I must be more out of it than I thought. But unfocused as I may be, I turn my attention back to the playboy, who hasn't seemed to notice that I'm even here yet.

I edge closer to him stealthily and am just about right next to him when I bellow into his ear, "SO, HOW'S IT GOING, MR. WALKING GENITALS?"

"What the bloody—crap!" Sirius nearly falls off the couch in shock.

I flop myself down into the space next to him on the couch. "That's what you get for zoning out like you did," I point out, trying not to burst into laughter.

Sirius' face flushes with embarrassment for a moment, but then he looks at me irritably. "I wasn't zoning out, I was just thinking. And what's this walking genitals crap?"

I gape at him in mock surprise. "What are you talking about? Are you telling me you're not a give-me-twenty-pence-and-I'll-get-you-laid machine?" I smack my knee. "Merlin's beard, and I thought I was always right!"

Sirius just rolls his eyes and stares back into the fire with a sigh. "What do you want?"

I raise my eyebrows, taken aback.

Whoa. Did he just turn down a fight? We can't go minutes without having a row and I was just out for a couple of hours. Now, he's not up for it? That's it. It's over. The world as we know it is going to end.

But despite my instinct to keep arguing with him, I can't help but ask him about what happened. "You talked with Ellie?" I say as I grab a pillow and hug it to my chest. It came out more as a comment than a question.

"Yeah," he replies, not bothering to look up at me.

"What... did you guys end up talking about?" I ask tentatively. Honestly, I don't know why I'm asking at all.

There's a moment of awkward silence, but then Sirius heaves another sigh and answers simply, "I turned her down."

"Wait." I turn towards him in amazement. "You did what?"

Sirius turns to me with a strange look on his face. "What're you getting all surprised for? I'm engaged to you, aren't I?"

Caught off guard once again. That's the first time Sirius has said the word engaged since he'd read his parent's letter in Defense Against the Dark Arts. For some reason, hearing the words on his lips made me flush.

 "It's not like I want to be engaged to you!" I retort quickly, willing the heat in my face to flow back down.

"Yeah, well—!" Sirius starts to retaliate, but then turns  instead to stare back into the fire. "I don't know why I rejected her actually," he admits in a low voice.

He doesn't know?

"Well, that's why I was surprised earlier, to be honest," I say thoughtfully. "I mean, you were with her the longest, right?"